Electrical fault blamed for farm shed fire

FIREfighters took nearly three hours to make safe a farm shed containing fertilizer after a blaze near Gordon on Monday night.

The Kelso crew were first on the scene to a tractor which had caught fire in a building at Greenknowe Farm at 9.30pm.

But firefighters feared the blaze could spread as some of the 50 tonnes of nitrogen fertilizer, also in the building, became affected. Specialist crews were called in from Galashiels and Livingston as the emergency service declared the outbreak a chemical incident and a 100-metre cordon was put in place.

Crews contained the run-off after consultation with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). Officials from the environment agency were set to examine the scene on Tuesday morning.

The blaze was extinguished just after midnight. The cause is understood to have been an electrical fault.